HOW DO WE PROGRESS?

ALL IN THE MIND.

I run a class for my senior Guys on a Saturday morning, this is something I sent out to them some time ago, more than likely forgotten by now.

I hope not.

I post it today so it may be of use to any that follow my thinking.

PROGRESS IS A NEW UNIVERSE WITH OLD SKILLS, AND NOT AN OLD UNIVERSE WITH NEW SKILLS.

This is for me is the corner stone of everything we are doing, and the sooner we find a way to get comfortable with the idea, the sooner we can align ourselves in this direction the sooner and the quicker we will move forward.

If you honestly believe that you can transcend from one level of Wing Chun to another by physically training the shit out of what you know now then you will be where you are now for ever.

I am sure you are all well aware that what I do in Wing Chun is “different” from what you do in Wing Chun.

“Different”, let me repeat that

“Different”, one more time for the slow Guys,

“Different”.

What I do is not better than what you do, better implies that we are doing the same thing but that I am doing it closer to the way it should be done {and by extension it means that you should be able to get there from here}, what I do gets better results there is absolutely no question about that, but what I am not doing, …………. is doing what you are doing, ……………. and just doing it better.

If what I am doing is different than what you do, do you really think that getting better at what you are doing is going to help you catch up with me?

PROGRESS IS A NEW UNIVERSE WITH OLD SKILLS, AND NOT AN OLD UNIVERSE WITH NEW SKILLS.

Each and everyone of us lives in a Universe of our own making, once we have made that Universe it is there forever and cannot be changed from that present viewpoint, as Albert Einstein noted

“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”

if something comes into our Universe that is not a part of it then we simply do not understand it, in many ways it does not exist.

If it does not exist how can you understand it?

And if you do not understand it how can you learn it?

If “Soft Focus Wing Chun” does not exist in your Universe it does not matter how hard you train, how hard you look or how much you want it you will never find it because it is not there, it does not exist.

What is our Universe?

Our Universe is nothing more than our Perceptions manifested in to what we think is Reality.

How we move and interact with our Universe is nothing more than us co-existing with a Universe that contains all the things we can already do, what I mean by this is that if your Universe contains mediocre Wing Chun Skills then you will be able to do Mediocre Wing Chun because it is part of your Universe and not something you trained.

Training for a thousand years in a Universe that only contains Mediocre Wing Chun will result in nothing more than Mediocre Wing Chun.

How could it do anything else?

There is nothing else there?

What we are really involved with through ongoing practice is learning how to change from the Universe we inhabit now to another Universe that has different values, different values will bring different perceptions and of course different perceptions will create a different Reality.

Wing Chun is nothing more than the Vehicle that we have chosen to travel to our new Universe.

How well and how quickly you move forward depends on how you connect with this idea.

What I do now in Wing Chun is almost unrelated to what I used to do 5 years ago, is this because my Skill base has changed?

I personally do not think that this is so, how can a Skill Base change anyway, how can an Arm movement change how can a Bong Sau change, no I believe that I am doing the same Shit that I had been doing for the previous 20 Years, in fact in many respects my Physical ability has gone down hill, I do not use many of the tools I used in the past at all.

Same Skills, Different Person, no I do not go for this either, I am definitely still me.

Quantum Mechanics postulates that every time you make a decision a new Universe comes into existence that continues the time Line with the other choice being the deciding factor.

We just live in the version with our current decision.

Same Person, same Skills, different Universe.

Changing Universes is a simple as making a choice, you decide what you want in your Universe and it appears. It is the deciding that is the tricky part, some people refuse to change, some out of Fear, some out of misplaced self importance and they hope that they can force change by hard work and effort.

If you think that you can get better at Wing Chun without changing to a Universe that has that possibility, that has that type of thinking as the normal thought all I can say is…